Sadly, there have been a few too many examples of brands co-opting the work of others for their own financial gain. Here's another. In December 2006, Scott Ableman and his co-workers decided to play a practical joke on another co-worker who drove a Jaguar and was one of those people who would park his car in a very remote spot so as to avoid scratches and dings. Ableman and friends plastered the co-worker's car with Post-It notes, took pictures of the resulting colorful design and posted them on Flickr. The whole thing turned into somewhat of a viral sensation.

"The generation that swore it would never get old -- didn't. Welcome to the summer of life."

Just for Men has decided to target the Confident Male Boomer, a man so sexy he need not fear his graying head of hair. (Bitch, please! He rocked Woodstock AND he surfs!)

The only question is, is the gray in all the right places? Fret no longer about nature's crude hand; get ahold of Touch of Gray, the only hair dye that lets you "keep a little" salt in that mostly-peppery mane.

That guitar riff sure does set the stage, plus the narrator's got us PUMPED. And the closing guffaw, "Never trust anybody over 90!", coupled with those bad-ass peace signs, won some high-larious backlash on YouTube.

This Cutwater-created commercial for Levi's is stupid. Yes, it's not polite to stare and objectify by either sex but come on! We are all human. We are all sexually attracted to one another. It's natural. It's innate. It's normal. Just admiring the beauty of another human doesn't mean we are all lecherous sex maniacs deserving of a body slam. Sometimes it's just nice to look at and appreciate pretty things. It isn't always about dirty thoughts

And by the way, the pretty things who get looked at, male or female (which, by the way, that stupid PC ending in the commercial is just stupid), shouldn't always assume the onlooker is out for anything more than the pleasure one derives from looking at a beautiful painting in a museum.

Old friend The Reverse Cowgirl points to yet another example of an ad agency's use of an artist's work without obtaining permission or providing credit. Writing on Constant Siege, Clayton Cubitt claims BBDO Athens created a direct rip off of photographer Jamie Nelson's work for an ad they did for Dexim. The photo used in the BBDO-created Dexim ad bears a striking resemblance to a photo Nelson took in 2006 and had published on the cover of July/August 2007 issue of Blink.

When contacted, Nelson provided Adrants with an armful of information supporting the notion BBDO Athens did, in fact, closely copy her work. BBDO Athens has been contacted but they have not yet responded. Likely BBDO Athens fully intended to mirror Nelson's work but somehow the permission process was mistakenly overlooked. I'll reserve final judgment until I've made contact with BBDO Athens to hear their side of the story.

UPDATE: We mis-reported (bad source information) the agency in question was BBDO Atlanta. It is actually BBDO Athens. Thanks to Atlanta-based Brent Terrazas for pointing out the error.

Ever watch a horror movie and begin to scream at the screen because the bubble-headed, big-breasted, airhead insists on answering the phone or opening the closet door rather than just...um...just walking away? Or some other totally illogical idiocy? Of course you have.

You'll want to do it again when you watch this DDB Stockholm-created commercial for McDonald's. You will scream, "Just lift the fries up to your mouth, you idiot!"

Sometimes if you want something to sound much better than it actually is, you sort of highlight and exaggerate the effort that went into making it. As part of a campaign that aims to position Popeyes as Louisiana Kitchen where "great tasting food requires slow, careful preparation," some twisted logic is employed to make that point clear.

In a new commercial for the brand, "Chef Ed" approaches Popeyes customers to explain how much time went into making the chain's $1.49 loaded chicken wrap. Because the chicken in the wrap was marinated for 12 hours, Chef Ed says the $1.49 wrap should really cost $72 based on a $6 per hour labor costs. Where the logic gets fuzzy is the assumption it takes any effort at all for chicken to soak in sauce for 12 hours. Does Popeyes pay employees to stare at the chicken for 12 hours? Is that part of the marination process?

OK, OK so there are preparation and refrigeration costs but still. Is having a dude side up to your table randomly to tell you your lunch should have cost 48 times what you paid for it really the best way to sell a chicken sandwich?

Um, right. And we're supposed to believe a simple pair of Timberland sneakers can somehow enable us to climb to the top of a multi-thousand foot, snow-capped peak? With out any climbing gear at all? Oh wait, this is an ad. Of course you can climb to the top of a snow-capped peak with a pair of sneakers because, well, it's all about the apparent fact "everyone dreams of standing on a podium."

OK so here it is. And it's nowhere near as good as the Kevin Federline version. Yes, it's the Sanjaya Malakar version of the ongoing "you're a has been" Nationwide Insurance ad campaign. In the Malakar version, Sanjaya travels to India to seek advice from the Gurucci (sp?). Hmm. Is that like some sort of inside joke? A mashup up Guru and Gucci?

Anyway, the Gurucci's advice couldn't be more perfect. When Sanjaya asks what the most important thing is in life, Gurucci replies, "A good retirement plan...and a hair cut."

Planned Parenthood Ohio is using a stodgy, responsible-looking older woman to rationalize its newest campaign, "The A-Word," which from what I can tell is made up of one video and an "Abstinence" graphic in smudgy Courier. Two of the tabs, "Affordability" and "Advocacy," are still "Coming Soon..."

The site was put together by Eisen Management Group, who argues "Planned Parenthood has been characterized in a largely false and negative light for far too long" -- that is, as champions for sex, however safe, but not abstinence.